My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
Here’s another example of eliminating stuff so we can pull the viewer face-to-face with our subject, a Kenworth grill. If you look close you can see a few bugs who have gotten a little to close in their face-to-face encounter with this mechanical beast. 🙂
“I am not very interested in extraordinary angles. They can be effective on certain occasions, but I do not feel the necessity for them in my own work. Indeed, I feel the simplest approach can often be most effective. A subject placed squarely in the centre of the frame, if attention is not distracted from it by fussy surroundings, has a simple dignity which makes it all the more impressive.” – Bill Brandt
Photography has helped me to visually see the world around me and with the camera in my hand I want to show you the simple things I see. And, sorry it’s not squarely in the center.
In the past I was never too excited about including signs of man in my nature photographs. I would work hard at making sure there were no signs of man in any of the images. Those telephone poles, houses, automobiles, fences all had to go. But as I’ve moved along in my photography, that has changed. Some of that change has been the expansion of my photographers eye and some of that change has been influenced by my travels.
I’m given opportunities to spend short periods of time in cities while on some overnights. With no vehicle, I’m mostly limited to explore the area around the hotels, so the work of man has become more prevalent in my images. I like how my vision has expanded. That expansion has allowed me to see much more around me. I now have images where including a farm within an image transformed a simple sunrise into an image that told more of a story about life. I also have images of old trucks, tractors, silos, and corrals that tell a story. While looking for images one early morning I discovered this old abandoned truck. For me it conjured up questions of a life from the past. Who first owned the truck? Was it a farm truck? How long was it used? What happened to the headlights?
… or anywhere today! In fact nobody is going anywhere as I70 is now closed. Blizzard conditions, blowing snow and cold temperatures, are the culprits. In the above image you can see some of the trucks parked at the TA. Some are camped in their trucks and some have wandered in to the cafe for food and conversation. The blizzard is roaring now as the freezing rain that left ice everywhere is now being covered in a beautiful layer of white snow. The worst of the snow fall is west of here so that gives me hope I can get out of here tomorrow.
I had a couple of neat things happen today. Someone I worked with years ago contacted me on Facebook to let me know she and her husband live close to where I’m at. As it’s too nasty to be out, we picked up the phone and had a wonderful conversation. I also received a response to my weekly email to family and friends back in Colorado and discovered Mike and his wife, Ing, are stranded at the St. Louis airport. So we picked up the phone and chatted a while. So close but yet unable to meetup.
I’m bedding down tonight just west of St. Louis at small place called Foristell, MO. I left Columbus early this morning and got in about 9 hours of weaving around semi’s along I70 before the weather became a problem. The first 4 hours I was enjoying clear blue skies then things began to change. I decided it was time to stop and get a hotel when the slick-as-snot freezing rain was building up on my wipers and making visibility almost impossible. I stopped twice to clean them off. The bad news is it’s suppose to turn to snow later and continue on throughout tomorrow. I may be here a while and still have about 850 miles to go. The above image is the grill of the car parked next to mine when I checked in. Needless to say, my car looked the same. What amazes me are the vehicles still on the road. Of course I will admit those going west are probably commuting home while those going east are trying to keep ahead of the weather.
After checking in to the room I “skated” next door to the truck stop and scarfed down some cajun grilled catfish, the perfect truckers meal. Now I’m stuffed. I have a clean bed, warm room and will soak in a hot tub of water before slipping between the sheets to read. Hopefully, tomorrow I can safely keep moving west, closer to home. 🙂
I bought a new, and larger, disc drive so I’ve been moving images to the new drive. It’s allowing me to go wander through the archives and what fun it is. I’m finding it interesting how I’m noticing images I don’t even remember taking. Once I see the image, my mind goes back to those moments. The above image was taken in the French Quarters in New Orleans. I remember seeing three people, just to the right, sitting at a table outside of a restaurant. I can even hear them laughing. And, I have no recollection of the purple wall, that one really surprised me. Kinda cool!
I start a 4 day trip on Saturday morning and hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!
As I write this post it is almost 11:00 pm Sunday evening and I’m in my hotel room. Another day of flying is done and a long day at that. I’ve come to enjoy these times when I can relax and reflect back over the day. I smile when I think about the two little children sitting in row 12 who are excited because they are flying for the first time and heading for good times with grandma. I imagine grandma is excited too. I will pray for the middle aged man who struggled to smile because his dad is not expected to live and Hospice suggested the family call him. I also enjoyed reconnecting with a couple who were on one of my flights 3 days ago and are now heading home. And when the opportunity presents itself and I can peek out the window, the view from my office is so much nicer than the 8×8 cell I use to work in. The added bonus to the day was arriving at the hotel and finding a chocolate chip cookie with my name on it. 🙂 Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend! Goodnight.